PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: January 15, 2023
Hypocrite-In-Chief Comer Says the Quiet Part Out Loud: “My Biggest Concern isn’t the Classified Documents, to be Honest with You”
Washington D.C. – This morning, Rep. James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and proved that he is an unserious person in a serious role. Comer was torched by host Jake Tapper’s questions about Comer’s total lack of interest in Donald Trump’s theft of classified documents and obstruction of efforts to get them back versus President Biden’s misplacement of a small number of documents which Comer is treating as a full-blown national security crisis.
Unable to explain his gobsmacking hypocrisy, Comer finally admitted that classified documents aren’t his primary concern – but attacking Joe Biden is.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project Senior Advisor, Brad Woodhouse, said the following:
“There is no bigger Trump, boot-licking hypocrite than James Comer. His gobsmacking hypocrisy is proof his performative concern over the Biden documents has no credibility. Comparing Biden and Trump’s handling of classified documents is like comparing apples to arsenic. James Comer is an unserious person in a serious role.
“Comer and this MAGA House allies are not acting in the interests of Americans and aren’t remotely interested in the issues they face like inflation and crime. They’re only focused on one thing: Trump-style political stunts designed to hurt Biden and help Trump and MAGA Republicans politically. Period.”
JAMES COMER’S LACK OF CREDIBILITY
James Comer’s gobsmacking hypocrisy is proof his performative concern over Biden documents can’t be believed. Comparing Biden and Trump’s handling of classified documents is like comparing apples to arsenic. In comparison to Trump stealing and hiding his documents and ignoring requests from the National Archives, Biden’s staff turned over the documents immediately after they were discovered.
Comer’s hypocrisy is nothing new. Comer has said he wants to launch investigations into President Biden’s family while ignoring how Trump’s family enriched themselves while working for his administration. Comer and this MAGA majority have the wrong priorities for Americans. They’re only focused on one thing: partisan investigations designed to hurt Biden and help MAGA Republicans politically so they can take away our rights.
Comer Dismissed former President Trump’s Scandals but now wants hearings on President Biden
Comer Claimed Documents Found At Mar-A-Lago Might Not Have Been Classified And Didn’t Amount To “A Hill Of Beans”
AUGUST 2022: James Comer: Documents Recovered At Mar-A-Lago “May Or May Not Be Classified.” “The FBI should have known for a decade of all the wrongdoing not just by Hunter Biden, but also by Joe Biden’s brothers, and yet they’ve never done anything. But then the National Archives says there’s some documents missing that may or may not be classified – we still don’t know the answer to that – and the FBI raids the former president’s home. This is terrible. This is the Deep State at its worst.” [“Prime News,” Newsmax TV, 8/31/22]
- Comer: “This Is About Our Freedom. This Is About Our Privacy.” “If the FBI can go in and raid someone’s home just because there’s some government bureaucrat who says there’s some documents missing that, again, may or may not be classified, then they can do that to anyone. This is about our freedom. This is about our privacy.” [“Prime News,” Newsmax TV, 8/31/22]
AUGUST 2022: James Comer: Classified Documents Found At Mar-A-Lago “Didn’t Amount To A Hill Of Beans.” “What I’ve seen that the National Archives was concerned about Trump having in his possession didn’t amount to a hill of beans.” [“Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Newsmax TV, 8/9/22]
Comer Said Trump’s Documents Were “Not A Priority” For The Oversight Committee
NOVEMBER 2022: James Comer: Missing Classified Documents At Mar-A-Lago Are “Not A Priority.” “The top House Republican slated to take over the chamber’s investigation into classified documents found at the former president’s Florida estate said it ‘will not be a priority’ in the new Congress. Rep. Jim Comer of Kentucky, likely the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN in a sit-down interview that, ‘we’re just waiting to see what comes out of that.’ ‘That will not be a priority,’ he added, noting that his team has requested information on the status of the House investigation.” [CNN, 11/19/22]
AUGUST 2022: James Comer: Trump Didn’t “Intend To Take Anything That He Wasn’t Supposed To Take.” “Host: Would Trump have been better off had he just burned everything? James Comer: Yeah, he would have been better off if he had done like Hillary Clinton and got a hammer and started destroying everything and burned things, but obviously he’s not going to do that. I don’t think that the president intended to take anything that he wasn’t supposed to take. The question is what is in his possession and is it of national security importance enough to where the FBI would raid his home, and I don’t think the answer is going to be yes.” [“Prime News,” Newsmax TV, 8/31/22]
Comer Constantly Made Excuses For Donald Trump’s Lawless Behavior And Protected Trump Officials Accused Of Wrongdoing
Comer Ridiculously Claimed Trump’s Possible Obstruction of Justice Was Only a Joke; Said Trump’s Pressuring of FBI Director Comey to Drop Federal Criminal Charges Against Michael Flynn Was Just an Example of Trump’s “Kidding.” Rep. Comer stated in 2017 that President Trump’s attempt to pressure FBI Director James Comey into dropping the criminal investigation into Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, was merely an example of Trump’s kidding and not an attempt to obstruct justice.” While other Republicans in Washington have begun raising questions about Donald Trump’s actions and his alleged attempt to persuade former FBI Director James Comey to go easy on Comrade Michael Flynn, Kentucky’s own Rep. James Comer, who is on the House oversight committee, is making up excuses for him. FBI sources told the New York Times that according to a memo Comey wrote shortly after an Oval Office meeting with the president in February, that Trump tried to get Comey to drop the investigation into former campaign aide and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his relationship with Russia. […] Get ready to laugh your britches off. This will absolutely crack you up. Comer told Dave Weigel of the Washington Post that Trump may well have been joking to Comey. ‘It looks different on paper,’ the first term legislator from Tompkinsville told Weigel.” [Louisville Courier-Journal, 5/17/17]
Comer Attempted to Block Subpoenas for Testimony Surrounding the Approval of Security Clearances for Top White House Officials with Questionable Backgrounds. Rep. Comer and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee tried to block subpoenas being issued to the Trump administration over the process of approving security clearances for staff members of the Trump White House. “The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Tuesday voted to approve the issuance of two new subpoenas of administration officials and documents, setting up another confrontation between House Democrats and the Trump administration. The committee approved two resolutions authorizing Chairman Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., to issue subpoenas for executive branch officials and documents. The first, approved 22-15, requires Carl Kline, former White House personnel security director, to testify before the committee. […] White House Security Clearance Subpoena/Vote to Approve – Authorize the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee to subpoena Former White House Personnel Security Director Carl Kline to testify in connection with the committee’s investigation into the security clearance process at the White House.” [CQ, “House Oversight and Reform Committee Markup: Panel Approves Subpoena of Administration Officials, Census Documents,” 4/2/19; Comer voted NO]
Comer Now Calls Documents Found In A Biden Storage Facility A National Security Issue And Promised Immediate Hearings
JANUARY 2023: James Comer: We Will Hold Hearings On Biden Documents “As Soon As We Can Get Everything.” Oversight Chair James Comer reportedly “vowed to hold hearings on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents as soon as ‘we can get everything in place. We requested a lot of information. As soon as that comes in.’” [Annie Grayer (CNN), 1/12/23]
JANUARY 2023: Comer: “Joe Biden Hasn’t Been Honest With The American People About The Classified Documents. “Just like Joe Biden hasn’t been honest with the American people about the classified documents, the list goes on and on and on. That’s why we need to investigate this. This Biden Center today, where the classified documents were, they received $54 million from anonymous donors in China. That’s concerning.” [ABC News, 1/11/23]
JANUARY 2023: Comer: “There’s Just As Much Concern With Biden’s Mishandling Of Classified Documents As Trump.” “Linsey Davis: Why is investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents a priority, but Trump’s is not? I’m just curious if they are equal. James Comer: It’s a concern because the FBI raided former president Trump’s house. They took the security cameras. There’s a special counsel investigating him. We have now two different locations where Joe Biden had classified documents, but nothing has happened and he wasn’t raided, they didn’t go in and get the security cameras. There’s a two-tiered system of justice here with respect to how the former president is treated versus the current president. All we know is what President Biden said. He said there was only 10 documents in that first batch. We don’t know how many in this second batch, but as soon as they found it, they turned it over. Well, we don’t know that. That’s just what they said. And, in fact, we wouldn’t even know it if investigative reporters hadn’t broken the story. CBS, I believe, broke the story yesterday. NBC broke the story today. This happened in November. Why are we just now finding out about it? There’s just as much concern with Biden’s mishandling of classified documents as Trump, yet there’s no special prosecutor, there was no raid on the president’s Biden Center and we want to know why. I’m not saying Joe Biden did anything wrong with his handling of classified documents, but if you look at how the former president Trump has been treated versus how current President Biden has been treated, there’s a big difference.” [ABC News, 1/11/23]
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